Read about an ex-squaddie in the press and it's fairly likely that the article will be about a bloke living under a bridge or otherwise down on his luck. In contrast, it's amazing how many people on Arrse are doing gucci jobs, earning six-figure incomes and/or living high on the hog in sun-drenched places that certainly ain't Walsall or Luton.

I earn a salary in the mid 20 thousands, work as the plod version of a bleep, live in a modest suburb of Brum, buy more than the odd item of Tesco Value rubbish and shop more at Top Man than Selfridges. So who else is willing to admit to being a lowly-wage slave?

From having a well paid job (30k ish) per year, since last Feb I am back at the bottom of the heap again!

Broke up from the missus (bonus), moved to Germany and am now having to 're-train' (no pun intended) to do the same job here, which is driving trains. Over here, you train on 'dole' money and not on a starters wage with a company like in the UK. In my case, this means 750 â¬ per month and 250â¬ of this is by me working a mini job 6 nights a week on top of the full time course.

I would like to add though, I am now working to live and not living to work.

I'm on a decent salary but as I'm in the mid-ranks of Higher Education administration it's nothing massive. The missus is on more as she works in IT Security, so we're not going to be down the soup kitchen any time soon.

We live in a flat that I bought from my sister shortly before leaving the Army and stay there mostly because the mortgage is now buttons and as the area's since developed the transport links are good. It's nothing fancy, but it's big enough for the four of us for the time being. Most of our disposable income goes to paying off our student debts, into savings accounts or helping out her family back home.

I was on a great wage, being self employed, but ive been shafted by a tw@ of a builder, so am now looking at signing on, even though I cant, as my mrs works, so will only get my stamp paid.

So my income is now NIL, as the initial layout to do the job in the first place was a huge amount, and with not a lot coming back (feck all in fact), my income is NIL, where does that put me in the underclass?